


Meanwhile, in the Mushroom Kingdom...

by Rune_Spell



Category: Super Mario & Related Fandoms
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-03-19 01:58:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13694487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rune_Spell/pseuds/Rune_Spell
Summary: It's been five years since "Princess" Peach and her people fled the surface world. The thing is, it's been five years too many. New challenges arise in a dark and cold world as what's left of the Mushroom Kingdom struggles to survive.And as they do, they grieve for what once was...





	1. Five Years in the Making

**Chapter 1:** _Five Years in the Making_

 

Five years.

It had been five years.

Five years since the land had fallen into darkness. Five years since everyone  had fled the surface world, preferring the warmth of the maze-like world below.

Five years since the Mushroom Kingdom had been taken from her.

Princess Peach, if you could even call her a “princess” anymore, sat on her rather small bed, combing through a weekly report from her soldiers.

After only a few seconds, she put it down. She fell into the over-sized pillows of her tiny bed.

Oh, what was the point?! The soldiers never had anything new to report. They never stayed out there in the dark and cold long enough to tell her anything useful.

The only people she could truly rely on were her personal guards, who came to her whenever Princess Daisy, hundreds of miles away in Sarasaland, managed to smuggle supplies to the rebels. Even then, it was not often, and these pointless reports were all that Peach got.

_I hope Daisy comes through soon,_ she thought, staring at the chocolate cake crumbs on a platter by her bed.

She contemplated eating them for a moment. Then, deciding against it, as that would be improper for a “princess”, she turned from the platter.

The rebels were running low on food. At the rate they were going, the storage would run out in some two week’s time.

That was if they didn’t outright deplete it with the feast today.

The last time they had ran out of food, which had been some two years ago, the former Toad Town residents had gone into a riot. Some even decided the underground life wasn’t for them and left the Underground.

Nobody ever heard from them again.

 

Peach left her room, feeling that she had moped around enough.

Today was different from most other days. Normally, the tunnel passages would be eerily quiet. Everyone would stay locked up in their rooms unless the princess or Toadsworth said otherwise.

So if it were possible for it to be eerily noisy, that was what it was to Peach. As she walked into the Main Hall, she found toads, koopa troopas, goombas… Really, a variable mix of races, all working together to prepare the room.

Paratroopas hung red ribbons from the ceiling. Toads set up tables and chairs in the middle of the room, covering each and every one of them in red cloth. Some sprixie immigrants followed closely behind the toads, placing plastic red utensils and plates on each of the tables. Last but not least were the goombas, who ran to and fro with platters of food on their heads.

It was truly a spectacle to watch the chaos, even if it were somewhat somber. Everyone kept their heads down and stayed silent even as their “princess” walked in.

Even five years later, their hearts ached for the surface world above, where it had once been all sunshine and rainbows. And on top of that, when the invaders won…

Peach furiously shook her head at the thought. _No. This isn’t a time for mourning._ She couldn’t be sad. Not here in front of her subjects.

She made her way to the back of the room, where Toadsworth sat on a stool as he shouted commands at the workers.

Also by him was a podium, which she stood behind as she continued to watch the preparations.

“Quit fooling around!” Toadsworth suddenly yelled at a goomba who had stopped to chat with a friend.

The goomba jumped. He turned, staring at Toadsworth for a moment.

Toadsworth glared at him and made a little head motion towards Peach.

The goomba followed him to her. When his eyes landed on Peach, he gasped.With her now watching him, he seemed to turn into a brown blur as he raced into the crowd of workers.

His paratroopa friend stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before realizing she, too, should get back to work. She began hanging up the red ribbons once more.

Peach turned to Toadsworth, and him to her.

“Thank goodness you finally came,” Toadsworth said. “I couldn’t get him to listen to me.”

She smiled and turned back to the crowd.

Her people were beginning to file into the room and find their seats. Some seemed enthralled by how much red now lined the normally barren and brown Main Room. Other’s mouths watered hungrily at the food set before them. There was little difference between them, except for the single figure that took a seat in a far corner of the room.

Peach could easily pick him out of a crowd. For one, he was taller than most of the others in the room. And for two…

The man did this whenever he came to the yearly feast. He always avoided conversation by hiding in that specific corner of the room. Nobody ever noticed him, especially when someone even more important than him was on their minds.

She gazed over at Toadsworth before she stepped away from the podium.

The elder toad only gave her a look of indifference. That meant she was free to do what she wished, at least for now.

Parting the ever-enlarging crowd as she walked, Peach felt their eyes burrow into her soul. A familiar feeling that she knew, yet did not worry about. She became accustomed to it a long time ago. A moment like this wouldn’t change that.

The man and her were about the same age: twenty-nine. There was only a year to go before they truly left youth behind.

Despite that, the man looked the same as he always did. His brown hair hid mostly under a green cap and he had a dark, well-groomed moustache. He even wore the same clothes that he usually did: blue overalls over a green shirt, brown shoes, and pure white gloves. That, and of course that green cap with an “L” sitting smack-dab in the middle of it, which he never seemed to abandon even with a change of outfits.

As Peach came up to him, he kept his head down. He wanted to be alone, sure, but she refused to allow that. He needed someone to talk to.

When her heels made a final click against the cavern floor, the man began to act differently.

He _looked up._ His eyes lit up in fear.

Peach flashed him a warm smile as they made eye contact. Perhaps that would calm his nerves.

It didn’t. The man was too skittish for something like that to work. He stuffed himself as best as he could into his corner. As if _that_ would protect him from a pretty princess in pink.

Peach decided that she should speak first, seeing as he seemed so unwilling to. “You decided to come this year?”

He nodded quickly, adding in a “Hm-mh.”

“I’m glad you did,” she said. “The feast feels empty without you around.”

She saw the faintest hint of a smile on his lips. “Um, thanks.”

Good. She was getting somewhere with him. “Would you like to-”

“Sit up front?" he said. “No thanks.”

“I was going to ask if you wanted something to eat,” Peach said. Not exactly what she wanted him to do, but oh well. She waved over a passing goomba who carried a pile of crackers on his head.

Seeing her, the goomba, who she quickly found to be a youngster, rushed forward. He eagerly offered his plate to the Princess.

She laughed and scooped up a few crackers and tiny slices of cheese. Using a nearby table, she began to put them together to make cute little cheesy sandwiches.

The man hesitated. But as cheese sandwich after cheese sandwich was made, he began to edge over.

After making some fifteen of them, Peach thanked the young goomba and watched him wander off. She began fingering one of the sandwiches.

The man took one himself. Carefully, as to not disturb his beautifully-made moustache, he bit into it.

It was interesting to watch. Most others Peach knew would’ve shoved the whole thing into their mouths.

And yes, that included Toadsworth.

“Have you been well,” she asked, “Luigi?”

Hearing his name, Luigi’s cheeks grew warm and red. He nodded quickly to her as he swallowed down the sandwich.

“That’s good,” she said. “I feel better knowing that you’re okay.”

“T-thank you, Princess.”

The two of them stayed like this for a while, chatting about this and that as the cheese crackers slowly disappeared. Unlike the cheese sandwiches, though, Luigi’s nervousness never truly disappeared. He would grow silent whenever someone looked over at him, if only because Peach was there.

Peach could tell that he appreciated her company regardless. They would happily talk of old memories, like the time Bowser came and…

Well, of course he kidnapped her a lot back then. This time they talked about was no different.

But moving on, they discussed the koopa king and went on to some more… Sensitive subjects, like-

“Princess!” Toadsworth shouted over the crowd as he hobbled over to her table. “We’re about to start!”

Peach went from Luigi’s face to the even-shorter man’s. She stood up.

“Sorry that we’ll have to cut this short,” she said to Luigi. “Are you sure you don’t want to join us up there?”

“No thanks,” he said again. Then he added in, “I rather be alone now.”

Peach sighed. “Well, if you want to see me again, you know where I am.” She began to turn away from the table.

Toadsworth took that as a cue to go. As he faded back into the crowd…

“Peach?”

She looked back over her shoulder.

Luigi was smiling at her. “Maybe we can catch up at my place after the feast? I-I could show you something.”

This is what caused her to stop in her tracks.

Luigi was a hermit, so of course nobody really knew what he was up to between the yearly feasts. It would definitely be a good time to see him again.

So she nodded. “I’ll see you later, then.”

He grinned a bit wider. Then he lowered his head, yet again intending to become invisible in the crowd.

And so it was settled.


	2. Memories of Years Past

"My subjects," Princess Peach began, "for the past five years, we have been in hiding."

There were whispers in the crowd. She swore she heard a boy grumble, "Duh, of course."

She chose to ignore that and continued on with, "We have had to suffer countless tragedies along the way. Our kingdom was taken, our homes burned and pillaged..." She stopped for a moment as she gazed directly into the crowd. "Our family and friends killed in combat..."

The crowd went quiet. As per tradition, a moment of silence went to those lost in the move to the Underground.

But as Peach watched, a few in the audience broke down in tears. All here had a loss to mourn, whether it be their home, their life, family, or friends.

Peach longed to join them; to wallow in her own losses. Unfortunately for her, a "princess" had to keep her composure. That was part of being the Mushroom Kingdom's champion.

She scanned the room once more for the man in green.

Luigi had turned away so that his face wasn't visible to the crowd. Like everyone else, he had lost things on the surface. His home, his ghostly pet dog, Polter, his-

She gritted her teeth.  _No. I can't lose it. Not now._

Those in tears had to be comforted by their other friends and family. A few people even had to be led out of the room because they couldn't contain their emotions.

Once a few minutes had past, Peach began speaking again."If it hadn't been for Toadsworth's brilliant idea to move underground, we'd all would've been killed, forced into slavery, or what else they had planned to do to us if it hadn't been for making M-Ma-"

The audience members all knew who she was talking about. She had difficulty saying his name.

She rarely had been able to since that fateful day.

Peach gripped the podium's sides as she tried keeping her cool.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Toadsworth rushing up to her. He tugged on the bottom of her dress. A signal to get away out of the public eye  _now_.

"I-I'm surrendering the stage over t-to Mrs. Koopinstein," Peach said, stuttering through the rest of her speech. "She will now tell you a story."

With that, Peach stepped away from the podium and hurried off to the side of the room. She wiped her eye with a glove.

Back at the podium, a toad shoved Toadsworth's stool over to it.

An elderly koopa then got up from a table. She clamored into the seat as she glanced around the room.

Peach found her concerned gaze falling on her last of all. She merely nodded at the elder as she took her own seat in the front row.

And so, Mrs. Koopinstein began:

 

_Eleven years ago, there was a beautiful and kind princess of eighteen years of age. All who lived in the Mushroom Kingdom loved her, even the more vile-hearted of her subjects. And she had just lost her parents to King Bowser._

_Bowser, who wished to conquer her kingdom, also wanted her lovely hand in marriage. He spirited the poor lady away to the Darklands, a land of fire and brimstone._

_Scared, the princess called for help. But nobody came._

_Anyone who could possibly be capable of saving her faced down the cruel, vicious Bowser and his equally terrifying army. Unfortunately, they were too powerful to stop. Every new challenger was killed by them. If they got as far as the Darklands, their remains were never recovered._

_With so many deaths, the princess began losing hope. She was alone, she was terrified, and she resigned herself to an unhappy life as Bowser's future wife. Nobody could possibly save her from the evil beast._

_A week into the invasion, a young man managed to reach Bowser. His main method of fighting of the army was unheard of: jumping upon their heads. It sounded ridiculous, but it worked. He was also an effective fighter, especially when he managed to snag a power-up._

_This man made his way to Bowser after the maze that was koopa king's castle. Bowser had left a switch on his side of the bridge to drop any invaders into the lava below, yet in a fit of stupidity, or perhaps caught up in the moment, he didn't use it._

_So it came to be that the man hopped over Bowser's head as easily as he had done with the rest of his army, reaching the switch. Before Bowser could react, the man pulled it and the evil king fell to his supposed doom below._

_The princess was overjoyed._ _With her rescuer cradling her in his arms, they returned home to her kingdom. Once they returned, the princess' subjects threw a massive celebration._   _Demands that they immediately wed reached their ears._

_Despite this, the man did not wish to be married. He was happy enough to have even saved the princess and settled for being her savior whenever someone, most notably Bowser, threatened her kingdom._

_Their names? Why, Princess Peach and Mario, of course!_

 

A guy's voice hollered from across the room, "OH YEAH!"

Heads turned, but no source was identified. A couple of people, mostly the children, laughed.

People also looked over at the princess.

The first course of food had come around mid-story and Peach was now finishing up a plate of lasagna. When she caught their eyes, she quickly wiped her mouth with a red napkin and smiled the best as she could back at them.

_Keep your cool,_ she reminded herself. The tale wasn't finished yet.

Mrs. Koopinstein went on. Her voice lowered and gained a tone of seriousness. The crowd paid attention to her once again:

 

_Alas, this happy arrangement had to end sooner or later. One day five years ago, an evil woman made her way to Toad Town, the Mushroom Kingdom's capital. A long fight between her and our lovely Princess Peach ensued within the castle._

 

Peach's eyes glistened as she listened on.  _No. Oh no._ She wasn't keeping her cool. She had to! She'd been able to do it before, and she couldn't lose it now.  _I have to stay strong!_

 

_Meanwhile, the woman's army marched into Toad Town. These soldiers weren't ordinary men, but beasts of dark, mysterious origins. Wielding the power of ice, they massacred all who were in their way. And as they did, the sun was blocked out completely by dark clouds. Temperatures dropped as heavy snow began to fall._

_With citizens screaming in terror, Mario raced into the town. He fought the beasts valiantly, even striking some down when others brave enough to fight couldn't. He made his way to the castle, where the mysterious queen of the invaders had knocked down the princess and was preparing to finish her off._

_With a cry of 'Peach!', he attacked the queen._

_The two of them traded blows, each more damaging than the last._

_The princess watched from the sidelines as she tended to her wounds._

_Mario finally managed to strike a blow to the queen's chest that sent her sprawling to the floor. He approached her, a large fireball in hand, seeming as if he would finally finish her off and put an end to the invasion._

_Sharp icicles clung to his face and body, yet he ignored any pain that they caused him. His hat had fallen to the ground mid-fight, leaving his brown hair a mess._

_The evil queen laughed. She also ignored the injuries she had acquired, focusing on the man in red before her. Her blue armor was dented. The way she slightly cringed as she stood indicated that her ribs had been broken. And worst of all, the left side of her face had melted away from a stray fireball, leaving nothing behind._

_Glaring at Mario, the queen used her magic to summon a spear of pure ice. She got up._

_Mario jumped back before she could jab at him with it. He still held the fireball, intent on throwing it at her._

_Fire. Of course, that was her weakness. He had to keep melting her._

' _Fool,' the queen growled at him. 'You underestimate me.'_

_He said nothing. He glared at her._

_A blast of icy air blew by. Peach shivered._

_The icy queen rushed forward. She thrust the spear at Mario._

_The hero had no time to react. His mouth opened in shock as it hit him, both literally and figuratively._

_At the same time, a hand grabbed Peach. Its owner screamed for her to run._

_Princess Peach got to her feet. She looked at the battle one last time._

_She found Mario sprawled on his side. The deadly point of the queen's icy spear protruded from his back._

_And there was red. A lot of red._

_Peach cried out in terror. She wanted to cover her eyes, but her hands didn't move. She focused on the growing red stain on the floor._

_The queen stepped forward, grinning._

" _So would you like to die next, "princess"?" she asked._

_Peach gaped at the woman, then at her hero._

_Mario motionlessly laid there. There was no twitching; no open eyes. Perhaps he was already dead._

_It was the end of an era._

_The queen laughed as Peach fled from her castle, clutching a toad child in her arms._

_And to this day, Mario's body has never been recovered._

 

Silence filled the room as the storyteller happened upon the last few words of her tale.

It was true. Mario was gone. Even after five years, it was hard to  _not_  remember a time where he wasn't there to save the day.

A woman in the front row loudly sobbed. Her gloved hands obscured her face, but the Mushroom Kingdomers knew who she was. How could they not?

Peach.


	3. The Letter

"How could you have let yourself go like that?" Toadsworth yelled at Peach. "A proper monarch should keep her cool."

Her shoulders sagged as she leaned against a cavern wall.

Toadsworth was right. She should've survived the story. Before today, she could get through the feasts by smiling and waving at those who looked at her.

Things were definitely different this year.

"I haven't been feeling well lately, Toadsworth," Peach said.

"Why didn't you say so?" Toadsworth asked. "I would've been happy to fill in for you today."

"Not physically," she said. "I mean emotionally." She pulled herself off of the wall. "To think we've suffered like this for five years straight, and then to find Luigi earlier…" Peach folded her hands together. "It hurts me. I should've helped Mario when he was there fighting that… Lady." She refused to call that woman a queen. She didn't deserve that title.

Not when she stole the Mushroom Kingdom from her and changed it for the worse.

Her advisor bowed his head. Peach waited for him to give her his words of wisdom.

He didn't get a chance to. One of the Main Hall's doors opened. The two of them glanced over at it.

A man slipped out from behind the door, quickly and quietly shutting it behind him. He wiped the tears from one of his eyes.

Peach spoke when he looked up. "Luigi…?"

Luigi stopped in his tracks and gave her a deer-in-the-headlights sort-of look. Then, once he recognized it was yet again the princess, he relaxed.

"You…" Her voice faltered. "You couldn't be in there either, huh?"

He nodded. "Y-yeah."

The two of them stood there in silence.

Toadsworth apparently decided he had enough after about thirty seconds. He hit his staff against the floor.

Both Peach and Luigi jumped.

"I'm going back in," Toadsworth spoke. "Peach, if you will?"

She glanced over at Luigi and said, "Could you go on alone, Toadsworth? I promised Luigi to find him after the feast."

Toadsworth switched his gaze to the green plumber.

He hurriedly nodded.

The elder began stumbling back to the Main Hall doors.

Good. That meant he was letting her go.

"See you later," Peach called after him.

"Be careful," Toadsworth merely replied.

The doors shut closed behind him.

 

The room that Luigi had made a home in was as isolated as he was; he lived a remarkably empty section of the Underground. Either he was good at finding spots where he wasn't that noticeable or his neighbors were those who went back to the Mushroom Kingdom some years ago. The area, after all, was one of the closer ones to surface.

Peach found herself befuddled by the number of locks he had on it as she laid against the wall by his front door. Many Undergrounders were protective over their rooms, but seeing Luigi like this made her wonder  _how_ paranoid they were.

It was five minutes before he could open all of the locks. When the last one fell into his hand, he glanced back at Peach.

"That took a while," he said. "Sorry."

"It's okay," she replied. "I could understand if you wanted to protect your…" Her voice faded when she got a glimpse of the room.

Like Peach, Luigi had a single, tiny bed (That he could probably fit in better, no less) and a small dresser. What was different was the amount of  _stuff_ he had inside.

Two dressers that Peach almost ran into, one green and one blue, were by the entrance. She stepped on a familiar-looking carpet of a yellow star surrounded by a pink background as she walked around them.

Shelves were sporadically hung around the room. They held random items with no sense of organization. What especially caught her eye was the framed photo of three familiar figures by one next to the bed, surrounded by the room's red and gold wallpaper.

Peach walked up to the photo, cupping the frame with one hand.

Luigi said nothing as he turned away, focusing on one of the shelves.

In the center of the photo was a woman in a pink dress. Her, obviously. At Peach's sides were two men.

One was nearly as tall as her. He wore a green shirt and dark blue overalls. When the photo was taken, he had a small grin on his face as Peach's arm settled on his shoulder, though his folded arms indicated that he was uncomfortable. That was Luigi.

The smaller one, in a red shirt and lighter blue overalls, was the exact opposite of his brother. He should've been looking at the camera. However, his eyes had wandered up to Peach mid-snap.

She remembered how the toad taking the photo had berated him and how the shorter man had laughed it off. He had been too happy for stuff like that to bother him, and she remembered how  _she_ had insisted on keeping that photo afterward. She didn't care if the photo wasn't "perfect". It clearly showed that the three of them were happy.

But now things were different.

"Princess?" Luigi called.

She snapped out her thoughts.

Luigi was under one of the shelves, holding a glass bottle in his arms. He pulled open the cork and got out a folded sheet of paper.

Peach came to his side.

"I found this the other day," he said, holding it out to her. "I thought you should read it."

She took the paper from him. "Oh, why?"

A letter. It was addressed to her. An-and she recognized the messy handwriting!

She tensed up.

Luigi did too.

"Should I read it out loud?" she said, glancing at him.

He shrugged. "If you want. I saw that it was for you, from…" His voice trailed off as she sucked in some air.

Then:

 

_Dear Peach,_

_Hey. How are you?_

_It's been a couple of weeks, right? I haven't been able to keep track of all this traveling I've been doing lately. Or maybe the_ lack  _of traveling I've been doing? I don't know; Cappy's kept me in the Seaside Kingdom for the last few days. He seems to have a thing for the ocean. Not that I'm complaining; I just wish those snails would quit staring at me whenever I hit the beach._

_I've seen you around but we haven't really "talked" since that whole thing on the Moon. You're so busy with your world tour that I find it weird to bring up right then and there. And I'm honestly afraid to. If I bring up about Bowser's wedding or weddings in general, wouldn't you only get angry? I don't want to upset you again._

 

There was a little doodle on the bottom of the page: a blob-like figure wearing a white top hat over its eyes. Next to it was a speech bubble saying: "Hi, sis!"

Peach flipped the paper over.

 

_Cappy, give the pen back._

_No._

_Cappy, this is MY letter to MY-_

_Oh, lighten up a little!_

_I have a nasty sunburn on my back. Does that_ look  _light to you?_

 

Peach and Luigi glanced at each other.

"He was funny like that," Luigi said, smiling.

She said nothing in return, going back to the letter.

 

_He wrote our argument down?!_

_Well, I'm not going back now. This is probably my_ thirty-fifth  _attempt at a letter._

_As I was trying to say: I'm sorry for all of that. The impromptu proposal, letting myself get angry when Bowser cut in… I was being impulsive. I thought because there was a wedding hall right on the Moon and it was all set up, we could use that and, you know, get married. Everyone seems to expect it at this point. I didn't want to let them all down._

_The way I worded that sounds kinda pushy. Just 'cause they "expect" it?_

_Is it possible we could chat after you get this? My apology would sound more sincere if you heard it from me instead of this letter._

_What I really want is to see you again, Peach. You're the reason why I can smile every day._

_Love,_

_Mario_

_P.S. Cappy's holding my hat hostage now. Say hi to Tiara for us, alright?_

 

Peach lowered the letter from her face as she uttered the last few words.

Luigi looked to the floor.

They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity.

And then, sniffling.

Luigi looked back up.

Peach wiped her eyes. She sniffled again.

He quietly moved closer to her, not bothering to glance at the letter as he put a hand on her shoulders. He offered the glass bottle to her.

She stared at the bottle, then him, and reached over to grab it with the hand not holding Mario's letter. Once she had it, she rolled up the paper.

Luigi handed her the cork.

She plugged the bottle up.

Finally, the both of them sat down on Luigi's bed.

Peach rolled the bottle around in her fingers. The tears were still there, still flowing. She ducked her head.

Luigi put his hands down in his lap. Unlike her, he didn't cry. He was quiet, always preferring to hide away.

_Could it be,_ she wondered,  _that all his tears left him years ago?_

She didn't ask. The last thing they both needed was him getting emotional too.

They sat like this for a long while.

When Peach picked up her head again, she looked to Luigi and whispered, "He was a good man, wasn't he?"

Luigi nodded. "Yeah. Big Bro was the best."

A silence came to blanket them once again.

It stayed that way even when Peach left Luigi's room ten minutes later, clutching the letter in the bottle as if it were her own child.

Luigi watched her go. After muttering a quick "See ya," he shut his door closed.

She began the long walk back to her room as her stomach complained about wanting food and her mind wandered, still thinking of her best friend from five years ago.


	4. Daisy

"Princess Peach?" A voice called through her bedroom door.

The princess' blonde hair fell in a mess of knots around her as she lifted her head.

"We have a message for you!" A second voice yelled through her bedroom door.

She groaned, glancing at the clock on her wall. What time was it?

_Four in the morning?_

The first voice shushed the second, confirming this. "Dude, you'll wake up the whole neighborhood if you keep that up."

_If he hasn't already._ Peach swore she could hear her next-door neighbor, an elderly goomba, already shuffling around in her apartment.

"This is urgent! Princess Daisy said she needed to-"

She shot out of bed.  _Daisy?!_

Yes,  _finally._ They could restock their supplies!

After putting on a pair of slippers, Peach threw open her door.

The two koopa troopas out in the hallway jumped as she appeared before them in a long and breezy pink nightgown.

The first of them was quick to salute her. "Princess!"

The second gaped at her.

"Did I hear 'Daisy'?" Peach asked them.

They both nodded.

"Tell her that I'll be there in a few minutes."

 

Peach stepped into the hallway once she had combed her hair and slipped on her favorite pink dress. People began coming out of their rooms to stare at her as she passed but they were quickly shooed back in by the guards at her sides.

One part of her wished that guard from earlier hadn't started shouting. Despite this, she kept her head high and avoided eye contact with her subjects.

She went by Luigi's room near the end of her walk. The plumber had come out to watch her. When one of her guards approached him, he moved back into his room.

She smiled as she remembered yesterday. After getting back to her room, she had read Mario's letter over and over. At least until she had fallen asleep. It was still in her unmade bed.

She looked up at Luigi.

He gulped.

"Do you want to come to see Daisy?" she asked him. "I heard you two used to-"

"No thank you." And then he shut the door.

Peach frowned. In the past, there had been rumors of him and her dating. Were none of those true?

_Maybe I could ask him later?_

She picked up the pace and, after passing a bunch of vacant rooms, found the stairs that led up and out of the Underground; their one and only exit to the surface world.

There were already Sarasalandian men in golden armor carrying wooden crates down the steps. A few stopped to bow to her as they passed by, and she nodded at them to continue on their way.

Finally, they all faded into the caverns, leaving her with a single figure at the bottom of the stairway: a woman clad in gold-colored armor with some orange mixed in. She was one of Daisy's elite guards, whom she had hired after being kidnapped years ago.

Peach felt the heat radiating out of the woman as she came over.  _That has to be a fire flower_. There was nobody she knew who could wield fire without one aside from Mario. And she knew that if the guard hadn't been using one, the orange parts of her armor would have grayish. That was the standard Sarasalandian armor.

"Princess?" the guard asked. She ripped off her helmet and scratched at her short black hair.

"Yes?" the princess replied, stopping before her. "Will Daisy be coming soon?"

"She's here and she does want to see you, but…"

Peach frowned. There were times where Daisy had to leave so that she could see that ice queen in the castle. One time, she had said it was to throw her off the Sarasalandian's scent. Was that what she was doing yet again?

The elite guard pulled her hand back out. In her palm was a strange-looking flower. The flower was all round and surrounded by two layers of orange and yellow. Two "eyes" in the center of its white "face" stared at the princess as the guard gave it to her.

She glanced up at the guard in confusion.

The guard moved to the side, leaving the stairs wide open. "Princess Daisy wants to see you outside."

She now gaped her. " _Ou-outside?!"_

In these past five years, she had never been outside! Toadsworth always told her that it was "simply too dangerous". He understandably didn't want to lose the last surviving member of the royal family.

_Thinking of it, where is Toadsworth?_ Wouldn't he have been informed of the Sarasalandians' coming?  _Perhaps it's because I got here first._

Toadsworth  _was_ getting old. She had noticed how much slower he had gotten these past five years.

"I can hardly believe it myself," the guard commented. "That snowstorm is brutal right now." She smiled widely. "But our princess is a tough cookie. She loves danger."

"Alright," Peach said. "I'll do it."

The guard nodded and said, "More of Daisy's elites will greet you at the top and lead you to her once you're ready."

"Thank you," she replied. She squeezed the fire flower.

A warm feeling traveled up her arm and throughout her body. When it subsided moments later, she looked herself over. The fire flower had disappeared and her pink dress had been completely replaced by a pure white one aside from this one little red stripe near the bottom.

Along with this, her long blonde hair had been tied into a ponytail by a plain red band. She had no idea what caused that, as it went away once she was either hit or finished with the power-up, but it sure helped whenever she needed to focus on combat.

As long as she had the fire flower's magic, though, she could survive the cold night air.

Smiling, Peach made her way up the steps and left the Underground for the first time in five years.

 

The winds whipped up in a frenzy as Peach and Sarasaland soldiers marched through a hastily-melted path through the snow. Part of the pink princess wondered why Daisy couldn't have waited until the snowstorm had calmed down. This was dangerous!

But then she remembered this was  _Daisy_. As the elite guard had said, she liked danger. Her father allowed her to go on frequent adventures around the globe. He wasn't a worrywart like Toadsworth, even after she got kidnapped once.

"Peach!"

She looked up.

A blur of red rushed towards her.

She braced for the impact.

A guard in the corner of her eye smirked. She knew what was about to happen.

Daisy nearly knocked Peach down as she squeezed her in a tight hug.

Peach yelped in surprise.

"Long time, no see!" the Sarasalandian princess said.

"I-I was wondering when you'd show up," Peach said.

Daisy pulled apart and stepped back from her.

Peach looked her friend over.

The fire flower's magic had turned Daisy's normally orange dress red. A pair of simple brown boots crunched the snow below her.

_Perhaps I_   _should've worn boots too,_ Peach thought, glancing down at her heels. Unfortunately, it was too late to turn around.

"How ya been?" Daisy excitedly said. "Father's sent me to Bonneton on a diplomatic mission, I visited Isle Delfino on a diplomatic mission, Tostarena was another one of those-" She stopped and laughed more. "Well, let's say I've been all over the place. Father's been trying to sign this ridiculous new trading tax thing into law, so I've had to go negotiate with literally everyone. I…"

Peach often wondered if Mario would have been better off with Daisy. The two of them were pretty energetic, and Mario, funnily enough, had that same habit of going off on tangents-

_You knew that he loved you,_ she told herself.  _Stop it._

Daisy had noticed her friend's hesitation and stopped talking. She frowned at her. "You okay? If it's about not getting the supplies in before yesterday's feast, sorry, but  _one of the guards on my team_  nearly got us killed at sea." She glared behind her.

A man in silver and orange armor laughed nervously and stepped away from the two.

"Perhaps I should fire him later," Daisy said.

"Don't worry," Peach said. "We had a fine feast." She watched a few men carrying more crates go past them. "You're helping us replace the supplies we lost during it. I'm grateful for that."

Sarasaland's princess sighed.

Peach looked back at her and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm just not sure how much longer we can keep this up."

She put a hand to her mouth. "What do you mean? Has the queen found out-"

"No, it's not that," Daisy began to walk away. She motioned for her to follow.

Peach dashed as best as she could in heels after her.

The Sarasalandian guards did nothing to stop them. They trusted their princess to keep safe.

After walking for a bit, the two royals found a large rock covered in snow.

Daisy went up to it and tilted her head. She put a gloved hand on its surface and felt around it. "Know how I said I've been going on diplomatic missions?"

"Yes?" Peach glanced at the rock. It was big enough for both of them to sit on provided they melted the snow off. She walked up to it and summoned a ball of fire.

"Nobody's been happy lately," Daisy said.

Peach silently melted the snow where she wanted to sit.

Daisy summoned her own fireball. "Did you know that the queen's eternal night and snow are slowly expanding outside of the kingdom?"

Now Peach's gaze couldn't help but shoot towards her. "Wait, really?'

She nodded. "Yeah. We've been having our troops monitor your kingdom from the air for the past few months."

"And you haven't been telling me this why-"

"This big cloud cover of snow and darkness," she said, gesturing at the sky, "has started creeping up on nearby areas, like Evershade Valley. That place already has eternal night, but they'll be getting snow one of these days." She thought for a moment. "I've been wondering how the ghosts would cope with the cold. Or that weird old man there. I don't understand what the Mario Bros see in him."

Peach covered her mouth with a hand. Now, this was news!

"People are starting to get nervous. If that cloud keeps expanding, more people will have to deal with this!" Daisy folded her arms. "Something must be done about that invader. Seriously, if she thinks of threatening Sarasaland and Tostarena, I'm taking my army and marching on her castle."

Peach settled on the rock, keeping her gaze away from Daisy.

"Well?" Daisy said.

"Daisy," she said, "you can't-"

"I would if I had to."

"You would get yourself hurt or  _killed_. If Mario, one of the fabled star children, died trying to fight the ice queen-"

"Khione," Daisy broke in again.

She blinked, and said, "Huh?"

"Her name is Khione." The sand princess said. She frowned at her. "You didn't know that?"

"Well, no…"

In the distance, there was a white castle covered in clear blue ice. It was unnerving to think that woman- That  _Khione_  was living just above them.

"That's-that's ridiculous!" Daisy sputtered. "Your kingdom was invaded by an evil sorceress who killed your best friend and nobody's bothered to learn her  _name_?!"

Peach stayed silent. That was silly now that she thought about it.

"How often do you get news from the surface?"

"Only through you. My soldiers are afraid of being out here for more than a few minutes at a time."

Daisy sighed. She shot a fireball at the rock Peach sat on. When the fireball landed, the snow under it instantly dissipated and left an empty gray surface behind. She sat down next to her fellow princess.

The snow that fell on them quickly evaporated from the heat their fire flowers granted them. Peach had to admit: it was nice to have a change of setting. Staying in a stuffy cave did get boring after a while, and she rarely got fresh air.

"Peach," Daisy said suddenly. "I want to help you."

"Huh?" The princess in pink said. She turned to face her.

Sarasaland's princess was bizarrely smiling. "I've been thinking about it, and I've finally decided that I want to stay here. I want to help you fight Khione."

"What?" she gasped. "Why?

"You're my friend and one of our kingdom's closest allies, even if your men couldn't hold back a giant turtle who used to kidnap you once a month."

"What about your family and people back home?! What if you  _die_?"

"Then the Sarasalandians will strike back even harder." Daisy's smile grew into a smirk. "I already told Father this is what I wanted to do. I'm sure that he'd have my back if I stayed here, as would the rest of my country. None of us can stand watching you guys suffer.

Peach stood up. "We can't possibly fight the ice queen even with your help. The day the ice-  _Khione_ , I apologize, marched on our kingdom, she massacred my people. She didn't even allow us to bury the dead; we had to flee her brutality." She glared at her. "I don't even know what happened to Mario's  _body,_ Daisy!"

Daisy got up as well. "Peach, I'm hanging around whether you like it or not. I'll help you reclaim what's rightfully yours." The princess of Sarasaland turned on her heel and marched back towards the entrance to the Underground. She began barking orders at her men and grabbed the end of a particularly heavy box to help drag into the Underground.

Peach was left alone to glance at the snow.

For these past few years, she had avoided any sort of conflict with that woman- Er, Khione. Maybe Daisy was right after all. They had to start fighting back. They had to reclaim Peach's birthright, the Mushroom Kingdom.

Sighing to herself, Peach got up and waved down a group of guards carrying another heavy box. The least she could do right now was help them out.


	5. Waluigi Time!

The woods were quiet.

Waluigi frowned as he shifted a backpack over his heavy winter coat. He had expected those weird colorful ghosts, maybe even the boos, to be around.

Guess they didn't want to come out today. Not with how cold it had gotten recently. There weren't many who could stand this weather without a fire flower.

There had recently been rumors that Khione's eternal snowstorm was starting to expand after five years of sitting over the Mushroom Kingdom. That seemed true what with the past week Waluigi and his friend, Wario, had spent exploring Evershade Valley.

If the temperature continued to drop, Waluigi doubted he could survive it. He didn't like the cold. Unfortunately, neither he or Wario had found any fire flowers on their treasure hunt thus far, and their previous ones had been lost fending off a pack of hungry monty moles a day ago.

Ugh. Wario had said that they were ridiculously easy to find around these parts. All Waluigi saw instead were dead plants and trees. It all was dead. He hated how dead it was. It made him begin to miss the eggplant garden he had once upon a time. Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead.

" _This is all that stupid Mario's fault,"_ he remembered Wario scoffing. " _I wouldn't be freezing if he had killed that Khione woman."_

The red plumber, the "savior" of the Mushroom Kingdom, had failed to kill the invading queen. The surface dwellers knew and loathed that. Rumors said that he barely lasted three minutes against Khione before falling. That was in contrast to his many fights with Bowser, where the two could go on for ages before either one fell.

Now, if he had been in Mario's position (Which he should have been. Waluigi obviously trumped that tiny, chubby plumber in looks and personality!), Waluigi would've burned Khione to death. Really, wasn't she made out of ice? He had never seen her before, though from what descriptions he'd gathered, she definitely was.

_He was an idiot,_ Waluigi thought.

Anyway, Mario was long gone. Why should he even think about him? In fact, why wasn't Waluigi focusing on his rivalry with Luigi?

He would be, but Luigi had disappeared along with many of Toad Town's residents after they lost their number one hero, though the surface dwellers knew that they had all evacuated underground. The last they had heard from those underground was that they were preparing a feast for the five-year anniversary of Mario's "tragic" death.

And here we go again with Mario. Things always came back full circle to him, didn't they?

"I hate my life," Waluigi growled.

He failed to take into account, deep in his thoughts, how a sheer cliff was up ahead and how close he was to its edge.

Wario glanced up at the last possible second from his treasure map to see his friend there. He yelled at Waluigi, "Hey, get away from the cliff!"

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Too late.

Wario scrambled to the cliff's edge. If Waluigi died, who would carry his stuff? Would the supplies he was already carrying survive?!

"Hey, can you hear me?!" he yelled.

He didn't get a response back.

Wario studied the rocky wall below. Was there a way down?

Well, no, but he  _was_  greeted by tree branches that instantaneously exploded inti orange leaves.

Somewhere down below, Waluigi screamed as the tree madly rustled, somewhat breaking his fall.

Wario screamed as well, but that's not important, is it? This is a Waluigi chapter!

 

"He's not dead, right? I'd hate to dig another grave."

Waluigi groaned in pain. Surprisingly, he wasn't dead.

"Yep, not dead! Out of it's more like it."

Now he gritted his teeth. That second voice had to be a toad. One couldn't possibly mistake their raspy voices for anything else.

Waluigi opened his eyes and looked up at the two small figures in front of him.

He was right about the second speaker. In front of him was a blue-vested, red-spotted toad. He looked no different than the other blue-vested, red-spotted toads of his race. Didn't they know anything about individuality?

Not so generic-looking was the old man next to him. He was obviously a human since toads didn't have ears, but he was as short as a toad. As Waluigi watched him, he pushed up his glasses.

"It's not every day people come falling down here," the old man said. "Or for that matter…" He glanced behind him.

Waluigi doubted his assessment of the old man. He sounded like a toad.

"Where am I?" he groused.

"You fell from up there," the toad answered, pointing up at the sky.

"I'd say the cliff," the old man said.

"Oh, right," the toad laughed nervously and shrank back.

"I'm Waluigi," the lankier of the trio said, sitting up. "Where's Wario?"

The old man stared at him for a moment. He said, "Luigi? That can't be you. You'd have a better mustache."

"No, I said WAH. WAH-Luigi. And I obviously  _do_ have a better mustache than that freak. Don't deny it."

"You came here with your brother Wario?" The man said. "Not Mario."

"Yes," Waluigi growled. "Have you gone deaf, old man?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Now quit insulting me and get up."

Waluigi glared at the old man. A gust blew by him, ruffling the tree's branches above. An orange leaf detached from one of the tree's lower branches and began floating down.

He glanced up at it and the tree. Last he remembered, the valley had no living trees. There was no sunlight for them to feed on. Not since this area became covered in darkness hundreds of years ago.

"What the…" he jumped up as his eyes widened.

"It exploded when you fell down here!" the Toad exclaimed.

"You mean bloomed," the older man corrected him, wrapping his white lab coat around himself.

"Yeah, yeah," the toad said, scratching his mushroom cap. "It really did! Are you magic. Mr. Waluigi?"

Waluigi grinned at being called "mister". He didn't have that happen to him often! Heck, children tended to spit on his shoes.

He scratched his chin. "Hm, well…".

He wouldn't say he was magic, though Waluigi  _was_  awfully good with plants. He yet again remembered watching his eggplant garden thrive. He sure did miss it.

Making a dead tree bloom, though? That was a first. Perhaps he  _was_  magic and he never realized it!

"Can I say yes?" he asked. 'Cause hey, why not? Maybe he wasn't a star child, but having powers would be awesome! Maybe he'd finally be recognized for something!

The old man laughed. "Now, now, Hob. There's got to be a scientific reason for this! This tree was blessed with the ability to bloom every one hundred years. Perhaps…"

He promptly went on a tangent, which Waluigi immediately blocked out. He was magic! Why this strange new power hadn't manifested until now, he had no idea, but  _yay_!

Waluigi began to grin.

Hob shrugged and picked up a bright green leaf from the ground. He grinned as well. "Gadd's weird. Don't mind him."

Now Waluigi looked at the older man with interest.

Gadd? Like, Professor E. Gadd? That guy who Luigi used to blab about often? He never expected him to be  _old_.

"HELP ME!"

His gaze shot up to the sky.

Falling towards the group was Wario.

Hob gasped and darted forward.

Waluigi snickered. Funny how a tiny toad was intent on helping Wario, while he made no move to save his "friend". He knew that he would survive the fall.

Wario was one of the seven known star children, after all. They were known for living through normally nasty things with barely a scratch. Most of them even had "normal" and "tiny" forms when they were hit hard enough, an ability that only toads were once known to possess. There was also the fact that Mario, the strongest of them all, once survived the end of the universe!

_Damn it, Mario._  Waluigi wished he would leave his head already.

Despite all that star child stuff, Wario seemed rattled once he hit the ground, mere inches from Hob's tiny little arms. He tightly clenched those big teeth of his together.

The toad screamed as he gazed upon Wario's unmoving body. He most likely was thinking that the man was dead.

Waluigi wished that he had earplugs.

"Hey!" Wario growled. His voice was muffled by his buried face. "Quit that, will ya?!"

Hob squeaked and backed away from him.

Wario sat up and rubbed his right arm. "Ow. Think I fell hard on it." He tested it out. "Doesn't look broken."

"Good for you," Waluigi muttered.

"I assume you're Wario?" Gadd asked, having stopped his rant as soon as Wario had plummeted down. "You do look like an exaggerated Mario."

"And?" Wario snapped at the old man. "That's kinda the point." He glared at Waluigi. "Why'd you have to fall down here? We could've been steps away from the treasure!"

Waluigi bent backward like a reed in the wind and narrowly missed the frustrated punch thrown by his "brother". He laughed as Wario retracted his fist.

"Weheh!" the purple man said. "You missed!"

But Waluigi, being the universe's eternal buttmonkey, promptly got socked in the stomach by another angry fist. He went flying across the ground and landed with an "Oof!"

Now Wario was the one laughing. He began advancing on Waluigi.

While the two continued this sport of theirs, they didn't seem to notice the bare ground turning a pure green color around them.

 

Hob shrank back from the pair of arguing men. "Professor, these guys are scaring me…" This was coming from a kid who spent his days living amongst the long-dead ghosts of Evershade Valley while working for an often-called-crazy scientist-man. Interesting.

Gadd decided to pay no heed to the trio. He stared up at the tree once again.

This being science or not, he had a hunch that things were about to get wacky.


	6. At the Lab

Professor E. Gadd squinted at the green leaf Hob had picked up earlier, even taking his glasses off as they had been "getting in the way". He went between it and a book in his lap while muttering stuff to himself.

Waluigi didn't see the point to it. It was just a leaf. One he'd brought back to life with his new powers, but still. That was all it was to him.

The group had retreated to the small, clean and (UGH) rather green underground bunker where the old professor lived. From there, they had gone off to do their own things. Waluigi was warming up by a heater, Gadd was what had been described above, Hob was also reading a book (That looked a lot like a children's book, what with the unicorn on the front), and Wario was shamelessly raiding a small fridge across the room.

With it having been ten whole minutes since he started sitting by the heater, Waluigi got up. He wandered over to Gadd.

"Hey, do you have anything interesting to do around here?" he asked the old man.

"Books," Gadd said. He flipped over a page in his textbook, as he did with the leaf.

"That's not interesting." That and Waluigi absolutely hated libraries. The last time he and Wario visited one, they were nearly arrested by Khione's forces for literally packing heat (And extra-smelly garlic farts, as the queen's soldiers found out during the duo's daring escape).

"You can help yourself to the fridge," Gadd said. "I still have a jar of diesel marinade."

_What the heck's diesel marinade?_  Whatever it was, Waluigi pointed out, "Wario's probably eating it all."

"Sure am!" Wario shouted. He held up a jar a weird green looking stuff. "Want some, Wally?" His large hand was digging around inside, clawing at even darker green things that stuck to the jar's sides.

"Not when you're sticking your grubby hand in there!" Waluigi shouted. Diesel marinade looked gross anyway. He'd rather stick to what remained of his Sarasaland-imported eggplants.

"Eh, fine," Wario said. He threw the jar back into the fridge. "Tastes disgusting anyway." He wiped his mouth with one of his gloves.

Hob grimaced and said, "Sir, the yellow guy ate through half our stock."

Wario ignored that and waddled on over to the group. "My buddy's right, old man. You've got nothing to do here. I've got no idea  _why_  we're even here." He folded his arms. "We were so close to finding that thing on the map."

With that, he reached behind him and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Ew!" Hob cried. "He just pulled it out of his-"

The textbook in the professor's lap slid off and crashed to the floor.

Everyone stood around in absolute silence.

Gadd hopped out of his chair to pick his book back up. He turned his head towards Hob.

The toad swallowed. "So sorry, sir."

The professor turned away from him and faced Waluigi. "Sonny, I've come to conclude that-"

Waluigi interrupted him. "That I have magic powers?"

"Erm…" He was hesitating. Not good.

Oh, how Waluigi wished it to be true! He had always wanted something to help him stand out from the crowd.  _Please let this be my big break!_

"You?" Wario said. "Magic?" He reached up to poke Waluigi's chest. "Since when?"

Waluigi grabbed his finger before he could. "Shut it, Fartio." He wasn't going to let Wario push him around.  _Not this time._ He had to be awesome somehow. He  _needed_ to be!

Gadd shut his book closed. "I've come to conclude that the tree bloomed by itself, which it does every one hundred years. This is due to a blessing put on it before Evershade Valley became, well, Evershade Valley. You were just in time to witness it, as were Hob and I."

Waluigi blinked a few times. His gaze became trained on the professor.

"Sorry, my boy," the professor said. "You aren't magic. Humans usually aren't."

Waluigi blinked some more. No.

_No._

_Nonononononononononononononononono!_

Wario began laughing. "Haha! Knew you were a loser."

The tall purple man curled his hand into a fist. With a cry of "Wah!", he brought it down to his "friend's" face.

A scream tore through the bunker. Unfortunately for Waluigi, it did not belong to Wario.

"WAHAHAHAHA!"

 

"I can't believe it," Waluigi groused, cradling his bandaged fist.

"Do you feel okay?" Hob asked. He opened a nearby drawer and tossed a roll of white bandages inside.

He frowned at him and said, "Do I look like I've ever been okay?"

Hob stared at him.

"Exactly."

Meanwhile, Wario and Professor E. Gadd were reading off the treasure map Wario had. Gadd was shaking his head, while Wario's eyes were narrowed. The latter's large teeth rubbed and audibly clacked against each other.

"Looks suspicious, sonny," Gadd said. "'Specially if it's leading to Evershade Valley of all place." He then turned to Hob and asked, "When was the last time we checked on the boos?"

Hob frowned. "Last, um, month maybe?" he said.

The professor's mouth opened slightly. He kept his gaze on the toad. "And you haven't been reminding me, why…?"

Hob gulped.

"Honestly, Hob!" he shouted at him. "I've been losing my mind lately and you said you'd help me keep on top of everything. What if- Wh-what if…" He hesitated.

Hob lowered his head.

"You're going downstairs to check on them right now," Gadd said. He reached for something at his side. It was a green lever. "If anything's happened, scream."

Hob nodded quickly and braced himself as the professor pulled down on the lever.

Waluigi jumped back from the toad. Then the floor opened up beneath him.

Despite what Gadd had told Hob, he screamed as he fell to an unknown world below. Then the chute closed behind him.

Waluigi sighed in relief. He shoved his fist underneath his armpit.

"I apologize for that," Gadd said. "The people I hire sometimes can be as clueless as I am of things." He shook his head.

"You keep boos?" Wario asked.

"Yes," he replied. "It's so that they don't cause the kingdom any more trouble. However, their king somehow escaped about three years ago." He examined Wario's map again. "I wonder if he has got anything to do with this."

"Why do you say that?" Waluigi asked.

"Because he pulled the same trick on the Mario Brothers some nine or ten years ago. I helped them get out of that pickle."

Wario and Waluigi silently met eyes.

_Those two have been here before,_ Waluigi thought.

No wonder why the professor had been perplexed by their names earlier. He personally knew the Bros!

"You see, Mario ended up being captured by the king of the boos. Luigi came looking for him..."

"I don't wanna hear about that loser!" Waluigi suddenly shouted.

That didn't stop Gadd's little story of how Luigi saved his older brother with a modified vacuum cleaner.

Waluigi did, however, earn a slap on the back for his outburst from Wario.

 

It was decided that Wario and Waluigi would head back to Toad Town the next morning. They were running low on supplies and Wario didn't feel like risking an encounter with this "King Boo".

Professor E. Gadd allowed the duo to stay the night, but they rejected his offer. They were pretty used to sleeping out in the open by now, and if Waluigi had to hear  _one more story_ about that  _stupid Luigi_ …

"Who's staying up tonight?" Waluigi asked as he sat over a small campfire. He put away the lighter he had used to ignite it.

He already knew the answer. Him. It was always him. Wario would just fall asleep if he had to keep watch.

"You, of course," Wario said, wrapping a wool blanket around himself. "Now shut up and let me sleep."

Waluigi groaned and wrapped his arms around his knees.

Once, just once, did he wish that Wario would be considerate enough to let  _him_ sleep. Ever since the start of their latest adventure, he had barely gotten any.

And people always wondered why he had those weird blue bags under his eyes.

Wario started snoring. He turned over on his side.

Waluigi put his hands to his ears. The bandages on his right hand uncomfortably scraped against his ear.

This was going to be a  _long_  night.


	7. Meanwhile, in the Darklands

******For those of you who found your way here from FFN, I apologize for not writing so much lately. Life has been a pain in the butt (I’m looking at you, college/my insane family), and my lack of motivation hasn’t been helping. But now that I’m posting something again, I have a few questions I want to ask:**

**The drama with FFN is mostly over now (If you didn’t hear, it involved review spambots and profile-hijacking). Would you prefer if I just continued my writing here (And go back and update the chapters on FFN someday)? I’m mainly asking since I’ve said to some people that I might commit to posting to Ao3 for now on, given all of FFN's issues this year (Does anyone here remember/want to know about that review glitch? That was pretty frustrating… Even though I only got one review that I couldn’t read the entire time, haha), but I really like FFN. Despite all of its flaws, it’s a site that I grew up with, and it’s where pretty much where all of the fandoms I’m part of get more attention (Aside from FiMfiction).**

**For the newcomers who’ve made it this far into the story: how do you feel about the way that I’ve portrayed the characters? Is there anything you think I could improve on? I know it’s Ao3, where kudos are way more common than comments, but I’d love to hear your opinions!**

**RS (Otherwise known as GitS)**

 

 **P.S. If you liked this story, check out** **_Seeing Red_** **. It’s more OC-based, but it’s had more work done to it and is related to this story.**

* * *

“KAMEK!” King Bowser shouted. “COME HERE AT ONCE!”

A small, figure in a blue robe instantly flew into the throne room on a wooden broom. He came to a complete stop before adjusting the glasses above his snout.

“Yes, Your Majesty?” Kamek said.

“How’s the search going?” he asked.

“Which search? The one for your son or for _her_?”

“I DON’T CARE!”

Kamek gulped, but said, “We-well, your majesty, we haven’t made any progress. You called me in here to ask the same question an hour ago.”

Bowser shifted himself into a more comfortable position on his throne and sighed.

The past few weeks, for him, had been a living nightmare. His son, Junior, had just turned twelve when he disappeared from the Darklands. There were signs as to where he went; the Koopalings, who had seen Junior in the hours before he disappeared, had pointed him towards what used to be the Mushroom Kingdom.

However, Queen Khione’s near-eternal blizzard was vicious at times. It was much worse than that time he took one to that snow kingdom with those sentient polar bears (Whatever it was called). Not to mention that Khione would probably launch an attack the moment she was notified of Bowser’s airships. So the search for Junior had hit a dead end.

As for _her_ , they knew _exactly_ where she was, but they had no reliable way of getting to her. S _he_ was vital to his plans. If he couldn’t get _her_ , he would have to face the Khione alone. And after the new queen had successfully killed Mario and taken over the Mushroom Kingdom, he wasn’t so sure if he wanted to do that.

King Bowser met Kamek’s eyes. “Well,” he said, “why are you just sitting there for?! Go check on the team looking for my son again!”

“Yes!” Kamek replied. “Right away!”

He took off, flying through the throne room doors. Two other servants, both Koopas, nervously eyed their king as they slammed the doors shut behind him.

Bowser got up from his throne, grunting. His leg bones crackled as they were forced to support his weight.

A small, gold-plated table stood beside his large throne. On it was a white bandana with a toothy mouth hastily drawn on.

The king smiled as one of his giant clawed hands picked it up. After Junior had turned ten, he had decided that he hated the bandana. It was, in his own words, “too childish”. As much as his dad agreed with him, it held tons of memories behind those blood-red lips and white teeth.

He vividly remembered the first adventure he’d ever taken his son on. They’d gone on a vacation to Delfino Isle, and his son had drawn on his newly-acquired bandana in an effort to “intimidate” Bowser’s number one rival, Mario. It had been, perhaps only in Bowser’s eyes but he didn’t care, absolutely adorable.

But times changed. Junior came to hate the bandana. He wasn’t much of father’s boy now either. He often caused trouble for both his father and his army, pulling senseless pranks and stealing rations to gorge on late. This latest stunt of his only highlighted this very new nature of his.

It was only natural, Bowser guessed. Children were someday going to grow up and seek more independence. However, that didn’t mean that Junior could run off on his own without telling him!

Lost in his thoughts, he almost didn't notice the ground glow a purplish color. A small, dark-hooded figure appeared from thin air before him.

Bowser blinked, but his neutral expression didn’t change.

“It’s you,” he said.

She nodded and cheerily said back, “It’s me!”

“If you’re here,” he said, “it’s must only be for one thing.”

“Of course, King Bowser. I’ve come to ask about _her_.”

Bowser’s steps pounded the ground as he walked forward and passed by the figure.

“Well,” he said, “let me tell you what’s happened since you last visited.”

 

The sun had begun to set over the Darklands as Bowser and his new companion made their way out on to a balcony. From here, they could see the dozens upon dozens of volcanic mountains that surrounded the castle.

“You found her again?!” the figure asked excitedly for the hundredth time, coming to stop at the railing. “You honestly, sincerely did?”

“Yeah,” he finally said. He leaned forwards against on the railing and grinned toothily at her. “Kamek picked up another signal.”

She gasped and reached out for his large, scaly arm. “Please. You _must_ tell me.”

He paused as he looked down at the shadowy hand touching him. His eyes wandered further up to her face.

She had a pretty little face. It reminded him a lot of Peach’s face, and it would’ve looked a lot more like her’s if it weren’t for her glowing red eyes and the gleaming white fangs that stuck out of her mouth.

Bowser, careful to not dig his claws into her delicate skin, plucked her hand off of him. “I had Kamek use a powerful spell to summon a warp pipe to her world. He nearly died from the energy cost, though. Wherever she lives, it’s faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from here.”

She opened her mouth, but he spoke before she could:

“Not only that, but I sent her a little gift,” Bowser said. “Remember that red hat Mario had?”

“Yes?”

“We put an enchantment on it so that we know where she is at all times. I've been checking on her for the past few days-” _Wait. Maybe I should..._ “KAMEK, I NEED YOU AGAIN!”

His trusty court wizard instantly popped into existence before him. “Ye-yes, my king?”

“I’d like to show Morgan the girl.”

Kamek nodded. He waved his wand a little, chanted something in a strange language that Bowser never understood, and a ball of light appeared before King Bowser and the woman. It slowly expanded until they saw-

 

_The scene was a small bedroom. The hat, its red brim taking up the bottom half of the image, sat atop a table. Across the room from it was a bed, where a body laid, its back slowly rising and falling with every short breath._

 

Bowser leaned closer to the projection and squinted. His companion followed.

 

_It was a girl who was sleeping soundly in that bed. Her face, framed by light brown hair that curled at the ends, was pale._

 

“Is that her?” the woman asked, leaning towards the image.

“Yeah,” Bowser said. “We finally know what she looks like.”

“She looks young,” she said. “...And she’s twitching in her sleep.”

As they watched, one of her arms escaped from its soft, warm prison and hung over the side of the bed.

 

_“Okay,” she sleepily said, “let’s fight, you stupid turtle.”_

_With that, her hand exploded into fire._

 

The woman gasped.

Bowser’s eyes went wide. Since when did she start... And the "turtle" part...

 

_The girl thrust her arm out and grabbed at the air._

_“Princess…” she mumbled._

 

The projection faded as Kamek yawned.

“Alright,” Bowser said. “I guess that’s enough. Remember to keep me posted on the search for Junior."

“Yeah, sure,” Kamek sleepily replied.

He then flew off, leaving Bowser and his female companion alone once again.

“I hope she doesn’t end up setting her room on fire,” she said.

Bowser turned around and started to walk away. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.” He smiled at her again. “All we gotta do now is find a way to bring the girl here without killing my best court mage.”

The woman bit her lip as she walked beside him back into the castle. She crossed her arms and made a “Hm…” sound.

They walked down a hallway for some time before she spoke again:

“Have Kamek send me the pipe spell he used once he wakes up. Perhaps I can modify it to work without the massive energy drain.”

“Do you really think that you could do that, Morganthia?” he asked.

“Of course!” she said with a quick nod. “I’m not one of Khione’s best mages for nothing.” She then turned towards him. “Keep an eye on that girl too. If she truly _is_ the one we’ve been looking for, she’ll be developing more abilities down the road.”

He nodded back. “Understood. I’ve just got one more thing to show you before you go.”

“Oh, really?”

Bowser turned to a lowly Goomba servant who had been walking down the hallway towards them.

The Goomba froze. His tiny little foot hung in midair as he made eye contact with his boss.

“Hey, you!” Bowser said, stepping forward. “Fetch the toothbrush!”

The Goomba gave him a blank stare.

“You know, the one that came flying out of the pipe from the other world.”

The Goomba continued sitting there. He blinked once.

Bowser took in a deep breath and then exhaled. _Gotta control my temper…_ “Fine! I’ll find it myself.” He turned back towards Morganthia. “BUT THERE IS A TOOTHBRUSH!”

Morganthia flinched. “Ye-yes, I... I guess there is…”

Bowser flinched himself upon seeing her reaction. He scratched his head. “Sorry about that.”

“You’re fine, King Bowser. Remember to take some more deep breaths next time.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll try."


End file.
